Bulldogs hand Tribe first loss

Saturday

Sep 21, 2013 at 2:06 AM

Indians lose first game of season

Marc Edwards

First-year head coach Buck Casson was ready to take the blame for Pontiac's first loss of the season Friday night. "It was mental mistakes and you can point fingers at me," Casson said after the Indians suffered a 33-6 setback at the hands of the Mahomet-Seymour Bulldogs. "We responded to a lot of situations," Casson said. "When it was 13-0, we were driving, they stop us on a play we felt comfortable with and they turn around an have a big play right before half." Although Casson said his team came out prepared, the Indians fell behind on the opening drive of the night as the eighth-ranked Bulldogs methodically marched down the field. Mahomet mixed it up with runs and passes, including a 31-yard scoring strike from junior quarterback Joe Kenney to Bradley Gleason. The seven-play drive took three minutes and the conversion kick was good to stake the Bulldogs to a 7-0 lead. Pontiac kept the ball on the ground on its first possession. Nick Wotton carried the ball five times and Vaughn Hobart once, but Mahomet-Seymour forced the Indians to punt. Both teams in the first half played exceptional defense. Pontiac held the Bulldogs out of the end zone again until 11:12 remaining in the second quarter. That's when Tyler Francisco broke through the PTHS defense for a 79-yard jaunt. This time the conversion kick was wide left and the Indians found themselves down 13-0. Another big play for Mahomet came after the Indians were forced to punt. Andy Livingston blocked the punt and the Bulldogs' Andrew Franklin recovered it. This was countered when Mahomet gave the ball right back to the Indians. Seth Cunningham pounced on a fumble by Kenney on the net play. Pontiac put together its only serious scoring opportunity of the first half late in the second quarter before turning over on downs at the Mahomet 9 yard line. Things got worse when Francisco broke down the left sideline for a 91-yard touchdown romp to give the Bulldogs a 19-0 lead at intermission. Casson decided to make a quarterback change in the second half going with Zach Tjarks. "Tjarks gives us an extra element, he can throw deep just like Kyle (DeLong) and he can run," Casson said. "There has been great competition between both of them (in the preseason)." The change didn't help much early as PTHS had trouble establishing anything early in the second half. The Tribe came out to start the second half, but only gained 6 yards. "We had situations where it was third and short and we just didn't covert," said Casson. "We went backwards instead of forward." A short punt gave the Bulldogs the ball at the Indian 43 yard line. Kenney hit Francisco for 12 yards and then found Cully Day in a crossing pattern. Day darted to the end zone for the touchdown. Kenney hit Day later for a 20-yard touchdown to give Mahomet a commanding 33-0 lead. "They had situations where our defense put them in third and long at times and they kept on converting," Casson said. Pontiac got its only score of the night when Hobart blocked the punt and Tre' Williams scooped it up and streaked in from 21 yards. "They blocked a punt on us and we blocked one on them and that was our big play of the night," Casson said. The Indians (3-1, 2-1) were led in rushing by Wotton, who had 98 yards on 20 carries. DeLong was 4 of 8 passing for 28 yards. On the defensive side of the ball, Hobart, James Motteler and Brandon Bohm each registered six tackles. "I was encouraged by a lot of good plays individually, but we need to be consistent to be a playoff team like Mahomet," Casson said.